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Hamilton Hill was a corrupt political stooge and crony of Gotham City Councilman, Rupert Thorne. Thorne paved the way for Hill's ascension to the Mayor's Office, where he immediately began shaking up the status quo with the removal of James Gordon as Gotham City Police Department Commissioner. Hill appointed Paul Spaulding (another Thorne crony) to take his place. Hill's actions earned him the enmity of many, including Homicide Detective Harvey Bullock. Hill arranged for Bullock to be murdered, but Harvey survived the attack. Hamilton then sought to shatter the public's support of the city's nocturnal vigilante, Batman. He framed Batman for a string of petty rivalries by planting evidence at the crime scenes. Ironically, during that time, the psychotic villain, the Night-Slayer, had briefly assumed the identity of Batman, and began to commit his own crime-spree. The true Batman fought the Night-Slayer, and exposed him as an imposter. Shortly thereafter, Hill's involvement in the frame-up came to light and he was run out of office. Gordon was immediately reinstated as Police Commissioner of Gotham City.

Hamilton Hill was the Mayor of Gotham City in Batman: The Animated Series and its successors. He was voiced by Lloyd Bochner. Unlike his comics characterization, Hill was depicted as one of Gotham's uncorrupt officials.

He first appeared in the episode, "On Leather Wings". In the episode, he allowed Detective Harvey Bullock to pursue Batman (along with his own task force), who was framed for the robberies of pharmacies throughout Gotham City.

In "Be a Clown", Hill's son, Jordan, was kidnapped by The Joker after he ran away because he thought his father didn't care about him. Batman later saved the boy and returned him to Hill, who then grew to trust Batman, unlike before.

Batman has also saved his life twice from Temple Fugate, The Clock King, who had a grudge against Hill because he believed that he made him late for a court date on purpose (Because of that, Fugate's company unjustly went bankrupt without a trial). Hill had been a lawyer at the time, which also caused Fugate to believe that Hill did it on purpose because the lawyers that worked on the case were represented by Hill's law firm.

Hill also appeared in the video game, Batman: Vengeance, who was being blackmailed by Poison Ivy along with other politicians and wealthy socialites. Later in Gotham Girls, Poison Ivy gave Hill a toxin that made him grow a root out of his forehead. That made him resign from office. In The New Batman Adventures, he was later replaced in an extraordinary election by The Penguin.

Hamilton Hill did not actually make a physical appearance in the game, but he was alluded to with the Hamilton Hill Building in New Gotham. During the events of the story DLC, "Cold Cold Heart," Mayor Hill was also mentioned several times, first when accessing the Batcave, and the last during the credits. Both instances revealed that Hill was under investigations for corruption charges, and eventually implicated badly enough that he ended up resigning from office, especially from pressure from various angry citizens, although he hadn't ruled out an attempt at re-election. That action also ensured that then-Captain James Gordon would act as the new GCPD Commissioner instead of Hill's planned replacement for Gillian B. Loeb, Peter Grogan. News reports accessible from the Cryptographic Sequencer in various points in the DLC, also revealed that the scandal and subsequent protests that were started on Christmas Day when news media received envelopes that exposed various corrupt actions from Hill and Grogan, including ties to the Maroni Crime Family. It was strongly implied that former GCPD Cybercrimes Division Head Edward Nygma, nicknamed Enigma, had been the person responsible for the leak as his "biggest dirtiest secret" after Batman had retrieved all of incriminating Datapacks on various people in Gotham City.

Although that character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, his existence following the events of the 1985-86 limited series, Crisis on Infinite Earths remained intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.